Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Windstream to cut 350 jobs, or 5 percent of work force, in move to balance out sales decline

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Windstream Corp. says it is cutting 350 jobs, or nearly 5 percent of its work force, in part to balance out declining revenue in its residential voice unit.

The Little Rock, Arkansas, company offers phone, high-speed Internet and high-definition digital TV services and has 7,100 employees. Its profit and revenue have fallen overall in the first and second quarters...

Iams headquarters to be auctioned online - Dayton Business Journal:

The former Iams Co. headquarters campus is going up on the auction block Oct. 15.

The Vandalia property will be auctioned online, with the bidding starting at $900,000. The two, four-story buildings have an appraised tax value of $8.6 million, according to a news release...

Sony moves to woo e-book publishers, authors - InternetNews.com

In its latest push into the burgeoning e-reader market, Sony today unveiled a new portal for aspiring authors who want to publish titles for the electronics giant's e-book store.

Online publishing firms Author Solutions and Smashwords are also partnering with Sony to give independent authors and small publishers the opportunity to offer content at The eBook Store from Sony...

Swine flu increases calls for telecommuting

As employees worry about a swine flu outbreak, companies wonder how they can help people stay safe while keeping the business running. IT can help.

One solution experts recommend: Get employees ready as possible to work from home (or at least as many as possible)...

Texas Governor blames Web campaign flop on hackers - PC World

The kick-off for Texas Governor Rick Perry's 2010 re-election campaign was marred Tuesday by a Web site outage that staffers are now calling a denial-of-service attack.

Perry had invited supporters to visit his campaign Web site at 11:30 a.m. Central time on Tuesday to attend a 10-minute online rally billed as "Talkin' Texas." Instead, site visitors were rebuffed with a computer error message...

US to share Internet review amid worldwide growth - USATODAY.com

NEW YORK — As Internet use expands worldwide, the United States said Wednesday it will give other governments and the private sector a greater oversight role in an organization whose decisions affect how computers relay traffic such as e-mail and Twitter posts.

The move comes after European regulators and other critics have said the U.S. government could wield too much influence over a system used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Those critics have complained, among other things, about the slow rollout of Internet addresses in languages other than English...

Talking domain names and local search with rural Missouri | BruceMarler.com

Cincinnati Bell gets its GPON grove on - FierceTelecom

MediaShift . Local politicians use social media to connect with voters | PBS

Local Politicians Use Social Media to Connect with Voters

When television cameras panned across the room full of senators and representatives during the recent presidential address to a joint session of Congress, the audience at home caught a glimpse of several political leaders tweeting away on their BlackBerry phones.

At the national level, social media has been embraced by many politicians. Even the White House has a Twitter account and Flickr feed. But is the same true of local campaigns and politicians? How much are Facebook, MySpace and Twitter being integrated into the communication strategies of local political campaigns?

Work begins on national e-health record network - washingtonpost.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Dr. James E. Sanders is a big believer of switching patient records from old paper files to sophisticated computer databases.

The electronic medical records system at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Kansas City Medical Center gives Sanders and his staff almost immediate access to medical histories, allowing them to seamlessly treat veterans from other states. But when patients aren't in the VA's system, it could mean hours or days before doctors have crucial information to properly care for patients...

The Lake County Fiber Network story « Blandin on Broadband

The Lake County Fiber Network project is an initiative to connect homes and businesses (schools, hospitals, everyone) in Lake County with a fiber optic cable to provide telephone, high-speed internet and television services.

The federal stimulus funding actually stimulated the effort in Lake County. Local providers were talking about it taking 10-15 years to build out a fiber network. So the county decided to take action. They engaged each local unit of government in Lake County to support them in an effort to apply for the BIP for low interest loans and grants...

An iPhone gets Zipcar drivers on their way - USATODAY.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The iPhone can do many things. Now it can even lock and unlock a car and start the engine.

Cambridge, Mass.-based car-sharing service Zipcar this week launched an app that lets you locate and reserve one of its vehicles, unlock it using the iPhone's touch-screen and drive it off the lot...

Twitter campaigns need more than 140 words of planning - Portland Business Journal:

Since Twitter’s launch in March 2006, businesses have struggled with how to most effectively use the popular technology.

Twitter allows friends to send short electronic messages to each other throughout the day. Known as “tweets,” the messages — limited to 140 words — typically answer the question, “What are you doing?”...

Facebook offers translation tool to other sites - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Back in January 2008, Facebook was available in one language: English. That’s when the company introduced a new translation tool that allowed its members to do the hard work of translating the site into their native languages. As a result, Facebook is now available in 65 languages, and a majority of its users are overseas.

On Thursday, Facebook will make that translation tool available to other sites. The new program is called Translations for Facebook Connect, and it is being offered to the 15,000 sites and applications that use the Connect service, which allows visitors to log in using their Facebook ID and password and broadcast some information back to their friends on the social network...

Advertising - Two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking, study says - NYTimes.com

ABOUT two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers — and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.

The professors say they believe the study, scheduled for release on Wednesday, is the first independent, nationally representative telephone survey on behavioral advertising...

Businesses brace for swine flu - washingtonpost.com

As they continue to grapple with the economic crisis, Washington-area employers now should prepare for a possible health crisis in coming months from an H1N1 pandemic, federal and local officials warned Tuesday.

In this area, health officials said, reported cases of the virus, also known as swine flu, have remained relatively low, in contrast to such places as Memphis and Austin, where overwhelmed hospitals have been forced to set up tents in parking lots to handle the heavy patient caseload. Still, officials from the federal Department of Health and Human Services as well as the District, Maryland and Virginia warned employers to plan for a disaster with large numbers of their workers out sick and a possible disruption in their operation...

Microsoft Bing ads warn about scams -- InformationWeek

In keeping with expanding efforts to educate consumers about security risks, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission, the United States Postal Inspection Service and Western Union, has launched a series of online public service announcements (PSAs) on its Bing search engine to warn searchers about online scams.

The PSAs appear as sponsored ads atop Bing search results lists in response to keywords commonly targeted by scammers...

Global broadband continues solid growth | jatiN mahindrA doT coM

The number of household broadband connections continues to experience solid growth and one in five households globally will have a fixed broadband connection by the end of 2009, according to a new report from Gartner.

A total of 422 million households will have a fixed broadband connection in 2009, up from 382 million households in 2008, and the market will continue to grow with nearly 580 million connections by 2013...

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Australia to reach 69 percent household broadband penetration by 2013: Report

Australia is expected get a big boost in the number of people with household broadband connections over the next four years, according to a new report.
About 1.7 million household broadband connections will be added, bringing the country’s penetration rate to 69 percent by 2012, Gartner (News - Alert), a research firm, said...

Motorola-cliq-phone -- chicagotribune.com

Delayed Garmin Nuviphone to go on sale next week -- chicagotribune.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- After more than a year of delays, Garmin Ltd.'s GPS unit/wireless device hybrid nuvifone is finally going on sale in the U.S.

Garmin, based in the Cayman Islands with headquarters in Olathe, Kan., said Tuesday that AT&T Inc. will begin selling the nuvifone G60 on an exclusive basis beginning Oct. 4 at AT&T stores and online. The device will sell for $299 with a two-year agreement and $100 mail-in rebate...

CNN debuts iPhone app, hoping user participation and other features justify $1.99 price -- chicagotribune.com

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN is coming out with an iPhone application Tuesday that has a feature few other news apps have tried: a price tag.

There's been a lot of talk this year about finally charging readers for news, especially on mobile devices, where media executives see a chance to condition consumers to handing over a few dollars for a constant stream of updates to their pocket. CNN is among the first big news outlets to give it a shot. Its app costs $1.99 to download.

Disney debuts subscription digital books - InternetNews.com

Disney Publishing today is launching an online subscription service offering families Web access to the empire's library of children's books.

Subscriptions for Disney Digital Books will cost either $8.95 a month or $79.95 a year, and can be purchased online or through gift cards sold in retail locations, according to analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, analyst at Forrester...

A National Interoperable Broadband Network for Public Safety: Recent Developments

Scammers hit Twitter with tainted tweet storm - USATODAY.com

A flurry of tainted micropostings is swamping Twitter with malicious scams, making it tougher to trust tweets even from people you know, security researchers say.
Several attacks that launched last week used tried-and-true e-mail spamming techniques. "We're seeing old scams migrating to the popular social networks," says Matt Marshall, lead researcher at Redspin, which tests network defenses...

Google Docs adds student-friendly features - PC World

Google Docs is trying to win the hearts and minds of college students. Over the summer, Google hired student interns to figure out what features Google Docs was lacking that would encourage more students to use the productivity suite.

Here's what Google's adding to attract a younger crowd -- and to ward off the threat posed by Microsoft, as the software giant prepares to roll out a competing suite of Web applications early next year...

Microsoft Security Essentials: Never pay for anti-virus again - PC World

When Microsoft announced the death of OneCare, I had a pretty good suspicion that wasn't the last we'd heard from Microsoft about anti-virus software. Microsoft doesn't just suddenly, for no reason, drop out of markets. Rather they stay at it until three or four versions down the road when they finally get it right.

With OneCare canceled (a pretty decent product, I thought), the most likely move would be to give it, or some form of the anti-malware software, away. That's how we got Microsoft Security Essentials available for free, (later) today...

AppBank lets users cash in on Facebook apps - Business Center - PC World

A Seattle-based startup is launching a free beta version of its application which enables users to cash in on the popularity of Facebook apps and quizzes-even if they have no programming or coding skills. AppBank provides the data, statistics, and training to help users target apps for profit, and the platform to enable them to create new apps, then shares the revenue with the user.

Fred Hsu launched the 6-person startup in April. Having cashed in on a previous venture, Oversee.net, Hsu is funding AppBank with his own money. The small band of full-time employees and low overhead of developing the AppBank platform have enabled the company to be profitable since its inception...

Cincinnati Bell selects Motorola's FTTH and Video Delivery Solutions to provide advanced television and broadband experiences to consumers

IT News Online > - - Cincinnati Bell Selects Motorola's FTTH and Video Delivery Solutions to Provide Advanced Television and Broadband Experiences to Consumers: "HORSHAM, Pa., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) Home and Networks Mobility business today announced that Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE: CBB) has selected Motorola's gigabit passive optical network (GPON), edge modulation, encryptor and encoding solutions for deployment in its fiber network.

Cincinnati Bell's fiber network will enable the delivery of rich personalized media experiences and support multiple high-speed broadband service tiers and advanced video services including the highest quality high-definition TV (HDTV), video-on-demand (VOD) and standard definition television programming available to consumers today..."

EDITORIAL: Net neutrality not so neutral [The Lima News, Ohio]

Senators plan bill to advance Net Neutrality - Post I.T. - A Technology Blog From The Washington Post - (washingtonpost.com)

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said in an interview Monday that he and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) are considering legislation aimed at helping advance the adoption of new rules on net neutrality. Such a bill could be a timetable or deadline for the Federal Communications Commission to finish its rule-making process, said Dorgan, the senior member on the Commerce Committee.

Last week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed rules that would prevent telecommunications, cable and wireless companies from blocking or slowing Internet traffic related to specific applications or services...

Security Fix - Cyber gangs hit healthcare providers

Organized cyber thieves that have stolen millions from corporations and schools over the past few months recently defrauded several health care providers, including a number of non-profit organizations that cater to the disabled and the uninsured.

The victims are the latest casualties of an online crime wave being perpetrated against U.S.-based organizations at the hands of cyber thieves thought to be based out of Eastern Europe...

Should airlines let passengers make calls via Wi-Fi? - USATODAY.com

Roger Flessing was on an American Airlines flight to Seattle recently when he began speaking with his son on his iPhone.

Unsure of how his action might be received by others, the Tacoma resident says he spoke discreetly. But soon, he says, flight attendants were leaning over, asking for a demonstration on how to make calls on their mobile phones. "They were saying, 'Wow this is great. We have to check our schedule, and we couldn't do that before,' " says Flessing, who flies often for his job as a communications executive for the non-profit relief organization World Vision...

Google remains video king - Washington Business Journal:

Google continues to dominate views of online videos, surpassing 10 billion video views in August, according to comScore, Inc.

The Reston-based Internet traffic tracking firm also says online video watching overall reached an all-time high of more than 25 billion views in August. More than 161 million viewers watched an average of 157 videos during the month...

Trouble with default settings at online stores - PC World

As an Amazon Prime member, I pay a yearly lump sum that entitles me to free two-day shipping for my many Amazon purchases. But six months ago, I noticed that small shipping charges were appearing on my bill at checkout; free two-day shipping was no longer the default choice on my purchases. Instead, a check mark ap­­peared next to the option for paid overnight delivery.

I hadn't told Amazon to send the items overnight, so why had the company made this my default? Regrettably, many of the default choices that Web sites make for consumers are good for them, but not for us...

Skeptical Shopper: Punishing consumers for paper billing - PC World

When a company announces that it's taking steps to "green" its business, I usually applaud. But when T-Mobile and other tech service companies announced that they would begin charging customers for paper bills, under the guise of instituting more-sustainable practices, I was doubtful. Would the tactic help save the environment, or was it just a convenient way to tack on extra charges?

In August, T-Mobile stated that it would start charging customers who wished to receive paper bills via mail a $1.50 monthly fee. The wireless company was already charging $2 monthly for printed itemized, detailed bills--so customers who preferred getting printed, itemized bills in the mail would now have to send T-Mobile an extra $42 per year...

Mobile-Phone Banking: Convenient and safe? - PC World

With the introduction of an iPhone app that lets you deposit a check by taking a picture of it, options for mobile banking are growing rapidly. And though you might think the boost in convenience comes at the expense of security, banking on your cell phone can actually be safer than using your PC if you take basic precautions.

You have three options for mobile banking: downloading a dedicated program for your cell phone, using your phone's browser to access a mobile version of your bank's site, or simply sending an SMS message...

Monday, September 28, 2009

Social networks, blogs grab bigger share of Web - Dayton Business Journal:

Web surfers in the U.S. are spending about three times as much of their time on the Web on social networking and blog sites like Facebook and Twitter as they did a year ago, according to a new report from The Nielsen Co.

The time spent by Americans on social networking went from 6 percent of all time last August on the Internet to about 17 percent last month, the report shows...

Lawmakers weigh government's role in securing the Web - USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON — There is no kill switch for the Internet, no secret on-off button in an Oval Office drawer.

Yet when a Senate committee was exploring ways to secure computer networks, a provision to give the president the power to shut down Internet traffic to compromised websites in an emergency set off alarms...

Apple's bragging rights: 2 billion app downloads - InternetNews.com

Apple's App Store today surpassed 2 billion downloads, proving that the iPhone maker still reigns supreme in the mobile app world.

The company, which started a cultural and technological phenomenon when it opened the App Store in July 2008, shows no sign of leveling off, based on figures released by Apple...

PCs for the people

Sometimes in the rush to drive up broadband penetration, important facts get lost. Like, for example, the fact that some areas that lack broadband services are populated by those who don’t own computers.

That’s why the NTCA’s Rural PC Project makes so much sense. It’s a way of enabling rural telcos to jointly have the buying power of larger operators, such as AT&T and Verizon, which routinely promote their broadband services by giving away netbooks. The NTCA program, now in its pilot phase, subsidizes the purchase of netbooks, which are smaller, more mobile laptop computers that are less expensive. More importantly, it’s a means of putting computers into the hands of those in rural communities who may not be able to afford them...

Is bandwidth addictive?

Broadband Coalition seeks consensus in diverse group

The US Broadband Coalition’s extensive report on the merits of broadband connections and the policies needed to support them, issued last week, is intended to help guide the FCC as it establishes a national broadband policy.

But the group’s major accomplishment may have been getting its 160 members to listen to opposing viewpoints, according to Chairman Jim Baller...

Mobile usage a rare highlight in music biz - washingtonpost.com

DENVER (Billboard) - The mobile music landscape is very much a study in good news, bad news.

The bad news is that mobile music has failed to live up to the expectations that the early success of ringtones had inspired. Combined ringtone and ringback tone sales have fallen almost 23 percent so far this year, according to Nielsen RingScan. And Forrester Research analyst Sonal Gandhi estimates that only one-third of U.S. mobile subscribers with music-capable phones use their devices to listen to music...

The FCC's heavy hand - washingtonpost.com

IN A SPEECH at the Brookings Institution last week, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski promised that his agency's plan for regulating Internet service providers (ISPs) will be "fair, transparent, fact-based and data-driven."

That's nice. But Mr. Genachowski failed to convincingly answer the most important question of all: Is this intervention necessary?..

'Flocking' behavior lands on social networking sites - USATODAY.com

The interconnected web of our friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances may dominate our lives more than we know.

They've always been there, making up our social support systems. But now, largely thanks to the burgeoning popularity of online social networks like Facebook, researchers are discovering what a powerful influence our connections — both online and off — really have over our lives...

Question Box answers calls in Africa where Web can’t reach - NYTimes.com

KAMPALA, Uganda — The caller was frustrated. A new pest was eating away at his just-planted coffee crop, and he wanted to know what to do. Tyssa Muhima jotted down notes as the caller spoke, and promised to call back in 10 minutes with an answer.

Each day, Ms. Muhima and two other young women at this small call center on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital city answer about 40 such calls. They are operators for Question Box, a free, nonprofit telephone hot line that is meant to get information to people in remote areas who lack access to computers...

Digital patient records get a big endorsement - NYTimes.com

The nation’s drive toward computerized medical records is getting a push from big hospitals, which hope not only to improve patient care but to gain an edge on competitors.

And an effort to be announced on Monday by a big New York regional hospital group may be the most ambitious effort of this type yet — a sizable investment intended as a linchpin in the group’s $400 million commitment to digitize patient records throughout its system, including 13 hospitals...

Driven to distraction - Truckers insist on keeping computers in the cab - Series - NYTimes.com

Crisscrossing the country, hundreds of thousands of long-haul truckers use computers in their cabs to get directions and stay in close contact with dispatchers, saving precious minutes that might otherwise be spent at the side of the road.

The trucking industry says these devices can be used safely, posing less of a distraction than BlackBerrys, iPhones and similar gadgets, and therefore should be exempted from legislation that would ban texting while driving...

Tough times lead to biz-listing boom on Craigslist - Boston Business Journal:

Business is booming on Craigslist’s Boston site. As of August, listings in the Boston site’s “business” category ­­— where business owners go to sell unneeded furniture and equipment — have doubled over the past two years, a Craigslist spokeswoman said. Similar listings quadrupled nationwide, she said.

The listings include everything from office supplies to entire businesses — such as La Bella’s Fine Foods, a catering and café business in Medford that the owner says needs a capital investment to get profitable again. Craigslist’s overall traffic has grown steadily through the recession. In August 2009, the San Francisco-based online classified marketplace saw 11.6 million more visitors than it saw in August 2008. The site’s 25.6 percent growth, compared with its traffic a year ago, vastly outstripped the Internet at large, where the number of monthly users grew by 4 percent in the same time frame...

It's getting easier to find the definition of 'parasitic' online - washingtonpost.com

Ostensibly, this is the story of dictionary Web sites and their impending demise. But really, this is the story of the oxpecker. I ask your patience while I get ornithological.

Meet the oxpecker, a plucky, selfless little bird. Its life amounts -- as for so many of us -- to little more than consumption for the sake of others. The oxpecker is a helpful friend to the bigger game of the sub-Saharan grasslands. Giraffes, wildebeests and cattle all welcome oxpeckers onto their hides. The oxpeckers, meanwhile, feed off of the parasites, insects and ticks they're picking off their gracious hosts. It's a symbiotic relationship, one of those quirks of nature that keeps an ecosystem churning. You scratch my back, I'll fatten yours...

Tweets gone wild: Has Twitter gone too far? - PC World

When you're reading that latest Twitter tweet, did you ever wonder where the author was when she or he wrote it?

You might be surprised to find out how many tweets are posted when the Twitterer is driving a car, watching a movie or -- yes, it's true -- when they are in the bathroom...

Sexy startups offer to rate mates - PC World

Technology can help mitigate the new dangers presented by online dating and the "hook-up" culture of today's youth, as well as the long-present threat of sexual misconduct by trusted authority figures, according to three companies presenting at the DEMO conference last week.

One of the companies, Date Check, lets people do quick background checks on potential dates and mates from their mobile phones...

Gorilla tourism goes online - PC World

Mountain-gorilla tracking in Uganda is hard work -- up steep slopes, through fascinating but dense terrain. It's not for the faint-hearted, but now an online project set to launch Saturday is helping to make gorilla spotting, a major source of tourism income, more accessible than ever.

Gorilla tracking requires a good level of fitness and patience. It's not cut out for tourists who want instant, easy viewing from the comfort of an air-conditioned jeep. For those with determination the reward sometimes is to be in the presence of one of the world's gentlest, rarest and most reclusive gentle giants.

Goldman: Broadband is a utility, not a luxury - ecoINSITE - Elevating Green IT

I am a big supporter of using broadband access as a green IT strategy (and a way to combat pig flu). But it goes without saying that before you can enjoy the benefits you need true, fast-speed broadband access wherever you reside or roam.

In preparation of OneWebDay this past Tuesday, technology journalist and broadband stimulus grant writer Alex Goldman of Net-Statistics.net delivered a speech on universal broadband that lays out how high-speed access to the Internet is not a luxury. He goes into further detail in his blog post commemorating OneWebDay. Although not expressly about reducing carbon, there are parallels to some green IT principles like dematerialization (dowloading IRS forms instead of fetching them at the post office) and telework...

IRS scam now world's biggest e-mail virus problem - Business Center - PC World

Criminals are waging a nasty online campaign right now, hoping that their victims' fears of the tax collecter will lead them to inadvertently install malicious software.

The spam campaign, entering its third week now, is showing no signs of slowing down, according to Gary Warner, director of research in computer forensics with the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This one campaign accounts for about 10 percent of the spam e-mail that his group is presently tracking, he said. "This is the most prominent spam-delivered virus in the world right now," he said...

How to think about Net Neutrality — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

History suggests the best course is not to borrow trouble, as the old phrase goes, but to let the system 'develop itself in its own way,' and act only in response to actual problems.

In a speech at the Brookings Institution September 21, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced a rulemaking to embrace the concept of “net neutrality,” and the telecom world is crackling with the energy of renewing a fight continued for some years now. It is more than just a new round, too, because the speech almost casually added wireless as well as wireline to the scope of FCC’s concerns, which raises new and serious sets of uncertainties...

US Broadband Coalition initial report « Blandin on Broadband

Yesterday the US Broadband Coalition released its initial report on a National Broadband Strategy. There’s not a ton of changes since I read the draft – but now that it’s out there I could probably comment more.

I think the report is, as they stated themselves, “a wealth of new ideas, many of them worthy of serious consideration and further discussion.” They didn’t focus on reach consensus or recommending specific policies.Here’s a quick list of items that seem to come up...

Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears and Ellen DeGeneres are among the many stars on Twitter -- latimes.com

Illinois is spammed a lot, report says

Intel inside could mean a TV that watches you - InternetNews.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel is putting Atom processors almost everywhere these days, with the latest target being televisions. The company announced a new Atom-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) design for television sets to make them the hub of social networking and interactivity.

Justin Rattner, chief technology officer for Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), introduced the Atom CE4100 during his keynote, the final keynote here Thursday at the Intel Developer Forum. The goal is to make the TV take on more PC-like function and interact with other devices so it can learn what the viewer's interests are and adjust accordingly...

Companies still not securing customer data - InternetNews.com

Despite a slew of disastrous, high-profile identity theft cases in the past few years, companies conducting transactions both online and in their brick-and-mortar stores still aren't doing enough to protect their customers' personal and financial data, according to a new survey released by Imperva and the Ponemon Institute.

The survey, which queried IT security professionals responsible for securing data at 517 U.S. and multinational companies, found that 55 percent are securing credit card information but not Social Security numbers, bank account details and variety of other customer data...

Russian Cybergangs make the Web a dangerous place - Business Center - PC World

Russian cybergangs have established a robust system for promoting Web sites that sell fake antivirus software, pharmaceuticals and counterfeit luxury products, according to a new report from security vendor Sophos.

To sell bogus goods, many of those sites rely on hundreds of "affiliate networks," which are essentially contractors that find ways to direct Web users to the bad sites, wrote Dmitry Samosseiko, a Sophos analyst. He made a presentation this week at the Virus Bulletin security conference in Geneva...

California House member proposes discounted broadband service bill - FierceTelecom

Lawmaker's bill would help poor with broadband costs - PC World

New legislation in the U.S. Congress would expand a program that helps low-income people who get telephone service also get broadband service.

Representative Doris Matsui, a California Democrat, introduced the Broadband Affordability Act on Thursday. The bill would require the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to establish a broadband assistance program for low-income people by expanding the Universal Service Fund's (USF) Lifeline Assistance program...

How could iPhone MMS crash AT&T's network? - Business Center - PC World

All the hand wringing over the Friday launch of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) on AT&T iPhones may be misplaced for a service that hasn't been a huge success on most other phones.

Apple let down iPhone watchers and owners when it announced in June that iPhone 3.0 software would support MMS but implied that AT&T would not yet allow it. The service launch was delayed several times, with exclusive carrier AT&T citing the need to make sure its network was ready. The feature will finally become generally available on AT&T iPhones on Friday when iTunes delivers a carrier settings update for the wildly popular phone. The carrier has said it expects "record volumes" of MMS traffic after the launch. MMS lets people send pictures, audio recordings, video clips or contact information along with an SMS (Short Message Service) message...

FCC takes sides in Net-Neutrality debate - washingtonpost.com

On Monday, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said the agency would write rules requiring Internet providers to do something many of them already say they do: deliver online content without discrimination. So why were there so many long faces in telecom afterward?

Chairman Julius Genachowski's speech at the Brookings Institution brought two "network-neutrality" questions back into the headlines. One: Is it bad if providers treat certain kinds of Internet data better than others? Two: Should the government do anything about it?...

Michael Gerson - Banish the Cyber-Bigots - washingtonpost.com

The transformation of Germany in the 1920s and '30s from the nation of Goethe to the nation of Goebbels is a specter that haunts, or should haunt, every nation.

The triumph of Nazi propaganda in this period is the subject of a remarkable exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (where I serve on the governing board). Germany in the 1920s was a land of broad literacy and diverse politics, boasting 146 daily newspapers in Berlin alone. Yet in the course of a few years, a fringe party was able to define a national community by scapegoating internal enemies; elevate a single, messianic leader; and keep the public docile with hatred while the state committed unprecedented crimes...

Google Books settlement delayed indefinitely - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

As currently written, the controversial settlement between Google and groups representing publishers and authors is officially dead. On Thursday, a federal judge gave the parties time to negotiate a new deal that would address some of the many objections filed by various groups.

Judge Denny Chin of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted a motion to delay an Oct. 7 hearing on the settlement, which would pave the way for Google to create an immense digital library and bookstore. The motion was filed earlier this week by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, the plaintiffs in the case, and was unopposed by Google, the defendant...

'We Live in Public' -- latimes.com

White spaces could fetch $100 billion -- Wireless spectrum -- InformationWeek

The empty TV spectrum known as "white spaces" could be worth as much as $100 billion in 15 years, according to a report commissioned byMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT).

Perspective Associates performed the study, which said using white spaces in conjunction with Wi-Fi could generate between $3.9 and $7.3 billion in value per year over the next 15 years. White spaces are the unused spectrum in the 700-MHz band that sits between licensed blocks, and the Federal Communications Commission last year approved unlicensed usage after receiving support from companies like Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Microsoft, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard...

Illinois unveils new public/private broadband partnership « Knight Center Community Connection

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn’s vision for broadband Internet is simple: He wants to see world-class networks in every community.

That vision is moving closer to reality with the launch of the state’s pioneering public/private partnership between state and local governments, Norlight Telecommunications, Motorola and Royell Communications to bring high-speed, affordable broadband Internet service to rural Macoupin and Montgomery counties. Norlight will supply the infrastructure, Motorola the equipment and Royell the retail service. Wholesale service to existing Internet providers will also be available. Service is expected to be available in 2010...

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Social network ad spend surging - InternetNews.com

Advertisers have more than doubled the amount of money they're spending on social networking Web sites since last year, according to a new analysis from market researcher the Nielsen Company.

The roughly $108 million advertisers spent on social sites like Facebook and MySpace in August marked a 119 percent increase from the same month last year...

Watchdog group challenges Verizon-Frontier deal  - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A national group of public utility watchdogs asked the Federal Communications Commission on Monday to reject Frontier Communications' plan to buy telephone lines from Verizon in West Virginia and 13 other states.

The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates says the risks of the $8.6 billion deal outweigh potential benefits...

Online high schools test students' social skills - WSJ.com

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Tatyana Ray has more than 1,200 Facebook friends, sends 600 texts a month and participated in four student clubs during the year and a half she attended high school online, through a program affiliated with Stanford University.

Although top public and private high schools abound in her affluent area of Palo Alto, the 17-year-old originally applied to the online school because she and her parents thought it looked both interesting and challenging. She enjoyed the academics but eventually found she was lonely. She missed the human connection of proms, football games and in-person, rather than online, gossip. The digital clubs for fashion, books and cooking involved Web cams and blogs and felt more like work than fun. Last winter, Ms. Ray left the online school and enrolled at a local community college for a semester...

Toyota Program: Slash Meeting Costs - BusinessWeek

Toyota Motor (TM) is often idolized for its super-efficient logistics and manufacturing operations. But after less than an hour on the job as Toyota's meeting services manager in 2006, Louann Cashill discovered that the carmaker could be as wasteful as Detroit's Big Three when it came to planning off-site events. "It was like walking into an office that still used typewriters," she jokes.

Toyota holds more than 400 meetings and conferences each year in the U.S., with an average of 3,500 employees on the road every month. Not long ago each round of travel began with hard-to-read, handwritten registration forms pouring forth from a fax machine to be manually typed into a computer. Hotels had to be selected, contacted, negotiated with, booked, and sent attendee information. Three full-time employees were needed to handle the workload.

Cashill had just researched event-planning software for her previous employer, Amgen (AMGN), where she ended up using a program called StarCite. She quickly enlisted Toyota in the same service. Today, all Cashill has to do is enter basic information about a meeting into a StarCite template, along with a list of employees who'll be attending. StarCite automatically sends online registration forms to attendees, books their reservations, and sends the information, along with payment, to the hotels...

Construction firm sues after $588,000 online theft - PC World

A construction company in Maine is suing its bank after about $588,000 disappeared from its accounts, alleging the bank failed to spot suspicious account activity before it was too late.

Over a week-long period in May, fraudsters made six transfers from the online bank accounts of Patco Construction Company, a family-owned developer in Sanford, Maine, according a copy of the lawsuit on the Washington Post's Web site...

Time Warner Cable launches Its fastest Internet yet in New York City with Time Warner Cable wideband Internet & business class wideband Internet

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Time Warner Cable today announced its fastest Internet experience yet with the launch of Time Warner Cable Wideband Internet and Business Class Wideband Internet in New York City. The announcement was made by Howard Szarfarc, Executive Vice President of the company’s New York City Region.

Time Warner Cable Wideband Internet empowers customers to boost productivity by saving time when multitasking. This is the perfect solution for multi-user and multi-device households. Time Warner Cable residential customers can now propel themselves into the next generation of the Internet with speeds up to 50 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream for only $99.95 per month. Combining the company’s robust fiber-optic network with DOCSIS 3.0 technology, Time Warner Cable Wideband Internet provides download speeds twice as fast as the company’s fastest broadband service...

Phone smart - A Wi-Fi alternative when the network gets clogged - NYTimes.com

Talk about falling short of expectations. In the last year, millions of people have snapped up new smartphones, filled them with apps and promptly found out that they couldn’t actually use them.

The problem? Either the much-hyped 3G pipeline was clogged with other users, or the cell connection wasn’t even good enough to ring the 3G bell in the first place. AT&T users have had it the worst, thanks to the network’s iPhone data hogs...

It's time for the FCC to start over from scratch

"FCC reform" has become a buzzword in broadband policy circles recently, with new Chairman Genachowski committed to bringing the agency into the 21st century and everyone acknowledging that something needs to be done to improve its efficiency and effectiveness.

But so far, most of what I've been hearing about how to reform the FCC deals with how to improve specific programs, like USF reform, or specific functionality, like improving their website...

The Columbus Dispatch : Job-seekers can visit libraries today for help

Central Ohio's five library systems are teaming up for today's Job Help Day.

All 28 branch locations in Columbus, Grandview Heights, Upper Arlington, Westerville and Worthington will offer workshops and panel discussions on preparing resumes, interviewing and using social-networking Web sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook...

Before choosing an e-book, pondering the format - NYTimes.com

Steve Jordan, a self-published science fiction novelist, has to make lots of decisions. Although most of them involve plot points, narrative arcs and character development, Mr. Jordan has the added burden of deciding how to deliver the stories he creates to his online audience.

Some of those readers own dedicated devices like Amazon.com’s Kindle, some plow through his books on smartphones, some use laptops and maybe a few even employ desktop PCs left over from the last century. (In true sci-fi fashion, Mr. Jordan doesn’t publish his novels on paper...

Obama, Net policy & the kindness of strangers | SOS eMarketing

Fantastic commercial success -- latimes.com

NFL's promotional videos are more about special effects work than special teams play, but however they were accomplished, they have been scoring big on the Internet...

Novice authors must promote themselves, since publishers won't - washingtonpost.com

Poor Kelly Corrigan, first-time author, didn't get invited to this weekend's National Book Festival on the Mall to plug her 2008 memoir, "The Middle Place." She won't be rubbing shoulders with heavyweight authors such as Sue Monk Kidd, John Grisham or Pulitzer winner Junot D?az. No major newspaper bothered to review the California mom's tale about cancer and family and recovery when it was released. Her publisher didn't send her on tour. All the old-school staples of book promotion -- the book festival, the tour, the glowing newspaper review -- Corrigan got none of them.

What was a newbie author to do?...

Verizon to carry iRex e-book reader -- InformationWeek

Verizon Wireless is the latest carrier to use its mobile data network to support an electronic book reader, as the company's 3G network will power iRex's new e-book reader. The DR800SG is touchscreen e-reader that features an 8.1-inch display. The device will support multiple types of standards including the ePub format and various digital rights management products, and it comes with 2 GB of internal storage that can be expanded with a memory card. It will go on sale this fall for about $400.

The Verizon component will enable users to browse Barnes & Noble's e-book store to purchase and download new content on-the-go. The costs of the wireless broadband will be baked into the price of the device, and users will have unlimited mobile data access over the life of the e-book reader...

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Intel wants you to age gracefully, at home - BusinessWeek

For three months early this year, 63-year-old Ronald Lang was one of the most plugged-in patients in America. Lang, who suffers from congestive heart failure and multiple sclerosis, was pilot-testing the Intel Health Guide, a device that let doctors monitor his health remotely. Each day after he woke up, he'd step on a scale and strap on a blood-pressure cuff that were attached to the Health Guide. The device collected his vitals and zapped them to his doctor's office. From there, nurse Marie DiCola scoured the data, and if she noticed anything amiss, she dialed up Lang and chatted with him over Health Guide's videophone.

Health Guide is at the leading edge of a new technology trend called "aging in place" that's designed to help seniors stay longer where they're most comfortable—at home—rather than having to move into nursing or assisted-living facilities. Aging-in-place equipment is placed in a person's home, monitors symptoms on the spot, and sends reports to doctors and family members in real time. Companies developing these products, just now being deployed by a handful of health plans and home care agencies, believe aging-in-place tech can drastically cut the rate of medical complications that force seniors into hospitals and other intensive-care facilities. That, in turn, could shave millions of dollars a year from U.S. health-care bills—a tantalizing proposition at a time when health reform is at the top of the political agenda...

Doctors-to-be cross the line online - USATODAY.com

CHICAGO (AP) — From Facebook to YouTube to personal blogs, future doctors are crossing the line — and getting in trouble.

A new study finds most medical school deans surveyed said they were aware of students posting unprofessional content online, including photos of drug paraphernalia and violations of patient privacy. Some infractions resulted in warnings, others in being expelled.

Real-time Web keeps social networkers connected - USATODAY.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Jessica Stryczek reaches for her iPhone every morning, even before she gets out of bed. It is her lifeline to the world — an uber alarm clock/CD player/e-mail device/game player/newspaper/shopping guide/banking assistant/conduit to Facebook and Twitter. "Without it, I wouldn't survive," says Stryczek, a 26-year-old teacher in Fremont, Calif.

The same goes for Sara Wilson, who starts and ends each day on her iPhones. Yes, she has two: one as an alarm clock, the other for "everything else" — e-mail, texts, Facebook updates, Twitter "tweets," checking her bank balance...

FCC Chairman Speaks on New Open Access Rules

What the new open access rules mean for WiMAX operators such as Clearwire: Incumbent mobile operators generally disapprove of rules that would prevent them from restricting the flow of various types of data. This also affects cable operators such as Comcast, who in the past have been accused of slowing or capping data flow of P2P file sharing and other applications. Operators insist that it is necessary to control data flows in order to maintain the overall quality of their networks. Usage statistics of 3G-3.5G mobile data as well as cable networks consistently show that bottlenecks can occur, particularly during peak usage periods. Without some means to control heavy data usage during those periods, they argue that their service to their customers will suffer.

Alternative services providers argue that operators can use the quality control mechanisms (QoS) as a ruse to restrict their services such as VoIP, even during periods or conditions when doing so does not improve overall network quality. It seems likely that the new FCC rules will require fewer restrictions on data flows. For the most part this move is favorable to WiMAX and LTE service providers, even though they may wish to take advantage of QoS mechanisms. This is a net benefit because these new networks will have the 'fattest pipe' with more headroom to handle abuse from heavy users...

Group asks agency to nix phone deal 

A consumer advocacy group is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reject Frontier Communications' plan to buy telephone lines from Verizon in West Virginia and 13 other states.

The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates says the risks of the $8.6 billion deal outweigh potential benefits. The group says the move puts customers at risk of being served by a company that lacks the resources to make necessary improvements to local facilities and to expand broadband Internet access...

Second Life's virtual economy over $500M a year - San Francisco Business Times:

Second Life "residents" have done more than $1 billion in transactions with one another to date and spent one billion hours online, according to the virtual world's maker, Linden Lab.

In 2008, Second Life users spent more than $360 million on virtual goods ranging from land to designer shoes to lavish homes. The Second Life economy almost doubled in size - 94 percent up - between the second quarter of this year and the same period in 2008. User-to-user transactions now amount to nearly $50 million per month, Linden Lab said in a press release...

Best Buy and Verizon jump into e-reader fray, with iRex - NYTimes.com

The budding market for electronic reading devices is about to get two powerful new entrants: Best Buy and Verizon.

On Wednesday, iRex Technologies, a spinoff of Royal Philips Electronics that already makes one of Europe’s best-known e-readers, plans to announce that it is entering the United States market with a $399 touch-screen e-reader...

The Pioneer Woman, an Internet and publishing sensation -- latimes.com

Ree Drummond likes to call herself an accidental country girl and she considers herself something of an accidental cook. But there's nothing accidental about the success she's built combining those two.

Drummond writes
the Pioneer Woman blog and gets about 13 million page views a month, enough to spin off a cookbook: The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Although not due out until Oct. 27, it is currently at No. 1 on Amazon's preorder list in the Cooking, Food & Wine category. Technorati ranks the Pioneer Woman on its list of the 100 most powerful and influential blogs in the world...

Spammers quickly adapt in anti-spam territory -- latimes.com

New technology used for streamlining data - washingtonpost.com

The administration began a Web program Tuesday that eliminates red tape in the immigration process by allowing applicants to follow their status via text message and e-mail. It is the latest example of how President Obama and his advisers are bringing the technological innovations of his 2008 campaign to the federal bureaucracy.

Administration officials said they also are developing a central method for Americans to receive government emergency information, consumer product recalls and other alerts electronically. The administration recently compiled all data from various federal agencies onto one Web site, Data.gov, and employed new technologies used by private businesses to run the government-sponsored "Cash for Clunkers" auto trade-in program...

GSA devises search plan for federal web sites -- InformationWeek

The General Services Administration plans an upgrade to its USA.gov site and is looking to improve search capabilities across federal Web sites, according to the GSA official overseeing the strategy.

USA.gov, the federal government's primary public-facing Web portal, will be updated with a new look and content management capabilities, said Dave McClure, GSA's recently appointed associate administrator of citizen services and communications. There will be a "big splash" release within 12 months, though other changes will be iterative and made as needed, McClure said...

FCC head net neutrality remarks spark reaction -- Net Neutrality -- InformationWeek

It didn't take long for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's Internet neutrality roadmap to elicit pushback. Republican FCC commissioners and major mobile phone wireless carriers weighed in Tuesday with skepticism in the wake of Genachowski's speech Monday in support of the concept of 'net neutrality'.

As expected, the major fuss centers around wireless networks and Genachowski's suggestion that the FCC principles and consumer protections applying to wired networks be extended to wireless networks...

FCC Chairman: Internet vital to applying for Fortune 500 jobs – Talk Radio News Service

Six GOP senators want to take away your freedom on the Internet

Yesterday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech in which he outlined the FCC's plan to enforce Net neutrality, a position President Barack Obama held during his campaign for president.

"Broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications," Genachowski said in his speech. "Nor can they disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by that broadband provider. The Internet must continue to allow users to decide what content and applications succeed..."

Ericsson pushes consumer broadband big bang - Telecom News Analysis

Carriers like

Verizon Wireless and Clearwire LLC (Nasdaq: CLWR) regularly talk about how wireless broadband will enable a new generation of consumer electronics devices with wide-area wireless onboard. So far, however, there are far more gaming consoles and digital cameras with embedded WiFi than with cellular capabilities.

This may change if Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) has anything to do with it. The firm is currently readying a 3G module for small consumer electronics devices that will start shipping in the first quarter of 2010...

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

FCC wants to be smart cop of Internet; questions on details remain - Post I.T. - A technology blog from The Washington Post - (washingtonpost.com)

The devil is always in the details. That's what Verizon's vice president of regulatory affairs, David Young, told me after the FCC announced its proposal Monday morning of new rules on how operators treat Web content and services on their networks.

In his speech at the Brookings Institution, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski described the FCC's role to be the "smart cop on the beat preserving a free and open Internet..."

Freelance worker website cheaply scales labor - washingtonpost.com

When you need additional workers but you can't afford to hire employees, you might turn to contract help. If you lack the established connections to find the right person for the job--or you just want to try a new option--turn to an online labor marketplace. These services match companies with skilled freelancers.

One of these marketplaces, Guru.com, combines elements of eBay, Craigslist, and dating sites to give workers and companies ways to connect...

PCIA's Fitch talks regs, buildouts on eve of show - RCR Wireless News

Washington Redskins linebacker Robert Henson hears it from fans after venting on Twitter - washingtonpost.com

On Sunday afternoon, Robert Henson was a mostly unknown reserve linebacker for the Washington Redskins, a first-year player who had never played in an NFL game and was best known for being the son-in-law of television pastor T.D. Jakes.

By Sunday evening, a few hours after Washington's unsightly 9-7 win against the St. Louis Rams, Henson had taken up an online battle against a segment of disgruntled Redskins fans, calling them disloyal "dim-wits" who "work 9 to 5 at McDonalds..."

New website pairs visitors with Parisians - USATODAY.com

PARIS — A cure for Parisians' brusque, haughty reputation may be at hand. Take a website, add a hint of anise-based pastis liqueur, a game of petanque and international travelers ready to mingle.

Two young entrepreneurs are introducing visitors to Paris life a la francaise...

Microsoft takes notice as more people use free Google Docs - USATODAY.com

Some big companies are starting to move their spreadsheets, word-processing and other productivity programs off of PCs and on to the Web.

About 20% of respondents to a study by researcher IDC say Google's (GOOG) Google Docs offering is widely used in their organization, up from 5.8% a little more than a year and a half ago...

Survey: Online banking popularity on the rise - Birmingham Business Journal:

Bank tellers and oversized branch networks may become a thing of the past as more consumers are preferring to do their banking business online, according to a recently released survey.

The American Bankers Association’s latest survey revealed that more bank customers – 25 percent – prefer online banking to any other method, the first time in the history of the survey that online banking ranked No.1. The results also showed that the popularity of online banking was not exclusive to the youngest consumers: it was the preferred banking method for all bank customers under the age of 55...

OneWebDay Celebrates the Internet as Public Utility on September 22, 2009

Tomorrow, annual event OneWebDay, which began in 2006 as a general celebration of the web, will be devoted to examining broadband as a fundamental necessity of modern life.

Mozilla Foundation founder Mitch Kapor said in a press release, "Ultimately, we want to ensure that anyone who wants it has access to the Internet and, importantly, the skills they need to fully participate. The ability to access and use a fast, affordable, and open Internet is essential for every student, every entrepreneur, and every citizen who wants full access to our government and the democratic process..."

Meet the AT&T MicroCell - Telecom News Analysis

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has posted a Web page unveiling its new 3G "MicroCell" home basestation, saying that the box is currently available for sale in "select markets."

The "soft launch," first reported by Unstrung last week, means that AT&T is the first U.S. carrier to launch a 3G femtocell, beating Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), which had said it would be first. Sprint and Verizon Wireless both have 2G femtocells available. (See Look for AT&T's Femto 'Soft Launch' Soon and Sprint: We'll Beat AT&T to 3G Femto.)...

Budget cuts and job seekers strain public library resources | Speed Matters – Internet Speed Test

Public libraries are packed with job seekers waiting to use the Internet to search for job postings, update resumes, and fill out online forms.

According to the American Library Association, seven out of ten libraries say they are the only public source of Internet access in their community - and job searching without the Internet is becoming increasingly difficult. USA Today reports on the situation in Greenville, South Carolina...

FCC site introduces new ways to connect | Speed Matters – Internet Speed Test

Broadband.gov, the official site of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, has introduced new online tools to interact with the agency.

Using the IdeaScale crowdsourcing platform, anyone with an idea or suggestion can share it with the agency. As Haley Van Dyck of the FCC New Media team explains...

Fashion's rules unraveling -- chicagotribune.com

Newspapers expected to open Internet toll booths this fall as publishers test online fees -- chicagotribune.com

Obama stumps for student loan plan, hails new Web rules -- latimes.com

Monday, September 21, 2009

Pricing tensions shake up Web display-ad market - WSJ.com

Growing tension between popular Web sites, such as Yahoo, MSNBC.com and History.com, and the middlemen who sell ad space for them is shaking up display advertising.

The market for online display ads -- those with text and pictures that border a Web page -- has dwindled amid the ad recession to an estimated $20.8 billion in 2009 from $23 billion in 2008...

Hackers hit 'Curious George' on PBS Web site - InternetNews.com

Hackers took over sections of the PBS.org Web site earlier this week, installing malicious JavaScript code on the site's "Curious George" page that infects visitors with a slew of software exploits.

Security research firm Purewire found that when visitors tried to log onto a fake authentication page they were served with an error page that took them to a malicious domain where the malware attempted to compromise users' desktop applications...

Rival e-books are piling into Amazon.com’s Kindle space - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

Irex, Cool-er, Asus. Not exactly household names. But these companies are among the legion of device makers and others that are trying to get a foothold in the nascent electronic book market.

The buzz around Amazon’s Kindle electronic reader has sparked growing interest in digital books, and the universe of players in this space is growing almost weekly. But the still modest revenue associated with e-books raises questions about how many companies the space can support — and whether it’s headed for an eventual shakeout...

Auto parts retailer sees e-commerce future in Silicon Valley - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

CAMPBELL — An East Coast retail giant with no brick-and-mortar presence west of the Rockies has chosen Silicon Valley as the base for its e-commerce business expansion.

On Sept. 14, the e-commerce division of Advance Auto Parts Inc. of Roanoke, Va., moved into 12,500 square feet at the Campbell Technology Park. The staff at Advance’s e-commerce division could more than double in size as the retailer’s improved online shopping site goes live early in the fourth quarter. The company has 20 employees in its e-commerce location but is looking to hire...

Jurors’ tweets, texts upset trial judges - Portland Business Journal:

Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Youlee Yim You was shocked during her inaugural trial to discover that a domestic violence defendant was texting the victim — his girlfriend — while she was on another floor of the building waiting to testify.

“It was a wake-up call as to what could happen,” You said, referring to the increased use of cell phones, Blackberries and other devices to circumvent, knowingly or unknowingly, the rules of court...

Governments use social media — with caution - Denver Business Journal:

As local and state governments tiptoe into the new world of social media, they’re finding it can be a legal minefield.

“Anybody with Internet access has the ability to screw it up for the organization, and if they do screw it up, it goes out more widely,” said Ken Fellman, a partner in the law firm of Kissinger & Fellman in Denver, who specializes in local government and telecommunications law. “In some ways, cities are asking the same questions that they asked 20 years ago when they were starting to get their government cable channels on the air, and 10 years ago when they were starting to get their websites up, and four years ago when they were asking themselves ‘should we do a blog..?’”

Friend, follow Uganda's gorillas on Facebook, Twitter - USATODAY.com

KAMPALA, Uganda — Facebook has long been the place to keep up with your favorite party animals, but soon it'll help you keep up with real ones, too: Africa's endangered mountain gorillas.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority is launching a program on Saturday to let people use www.friendagorilla.org or the social networking sites Facebook or Twitter to follow one of the gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park...

Ask an Expert: Putting your business on the Web - USATODAY.com

Q: With business slower than usual it does seem like a good idea to check out possibly getting into e-commerce. I certainly have the time! I was hoping you could give me some steps to follow. Thanks — Linda

A: There are so many great things to be said about e-commerce that I am not sure where to begin, but let's start with this one: E-commerce is, even today, a fairly new market; it has really been around for a little more than a dozen years. Being able to tap such a huge market at the relative start won't happen again in our lifetimes...

Procter & Gamble to mine e-commerce potential - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

Procter & Gamble Co., one of the nation’s most enterprising digital marketers, is now probing ways to translate the millions of hits that its Web sites attract monthly into hundreds of millions in added sales.

The maker of Olay, Pampers and Tide generates about $500 million in e-commerce now, less than 1 percent of its total sales of $79 billion. But the number has been quietly growing, and with the total e-commerce industry itself advancing in the double digits, P&G is forging ahead on several fronts, both through its own product Web sites and those of retailers...

Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan makes pitch for supporting print - NYTimes.com

Blogs are often criticized for helping to kill print media. Last week, though, the prominent political blogger Andrew Sullivan used his forum on TheAtlantic.com to tell readers to subscribe to the print edition of the magazine.

It worked. Within two days after last Monday’s post, Mr. Sullivan’s appeal pulled in 75 percent of the subscriptions that the Web site draws in a typical month, the magazine’s publisher, Jay Lauf, said. The Atlantic expects this month’s subscription orders to be double an average month’s...

Exploring news by the Amish online

IT’S not easy being the emissary from the digital world in Amish country. For two weeks this summer, Jessica Best, a 22-year-old journalist from Wales, fell into that role as the intern at The Budget of Sugarcreek, Ohio, a weekly that is the largest newspaper serving the Amish.

Her self-assigned task, supported by a traveling scholarship from the Welsh Livery Guild, was to study The Budget’s transition to the Internet and the willingness of the Amish to accept that transition. It led, she said, to many a friendly, if awkward, conversation, some of which she chronicled in a blog written from Sugarcreek...

The Internet is proof that government doesn't bungle everything -- latimes.com

The tech behind eHarmony - Business Center - PC World

While eHarmony Inc.'s goal is to get its 20 million members married or into long-term relationships, the online matchmaker is a downright commitment-phobe in its use of technology.

For the business intelligence infrastructure that powers its matchmaking algorithms and maximizes the effectiveness of its numerous TV ads, the firm relies on four database and data warehousing products...

How to hack Facebook (for a fee) - PC World

Security vendor PandaLabs has discovered an online service offering to help those so inclined to hack into any Facebook account they choose for a price: $100.

However, those who sign up for the service could find themselves becoming the victims instead, PandaLabs warned.

Open wireless network? « Blandin on Broadband

The St Cloud Times featured a story on NewCore, a company that has a plan to help stretch broadband into more remote areas. Rather than try to rephrase and potential misrepresent something I’m going to borrow heavily from the St Cloud story:

NewCore invested $5 million in infrastructure so rural telephone companies, local entrepreneurs and others can offer wireless through NewCore’s equipment. The infrastructure is actually computer equipment that — once connected to a cell phone tower or radio transmitter owned by one of its customers — allows people to use the Internet and make cell phone calls...

Will Amazon become the Wal-Mart of the Web? - NYTimes.com

THE hum of 102 rooftop air conditioners and a chorus of beeping electric carts provide the acoustic backdrop in Amazon.com’s 605,000-square-foot distribution facility on this city’s west side. But the center’s employees can almost always hear Terry Jones.

On a recent summer afternoon, Mr. Jones, an “inbound support associate” making $12 an hour, steered a hand-pushed cart through the packed aisles and shouted his location to everyone in earshot: “Cart coming through. Yup! Watch yourself, please!” Mr. Jones explained that he was just making his time at Amazon “joyful and fun” while complying with the company’s rigorous safety rules...